Impact
Helen Blau is a stem cell biologist at Stanford University, where she has directed the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology since 2000. Her laboratory studies cellular reprogramming, muscle stem cell function in regeneration, and strategies to rejuvenate aged cells and tissues. A central line of her recent work concerns 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH), a prostaglandin E2-degrading enzyme her group identified as elevated in aged tissues, including skeletal muscle, and describes as a 'gerozyme'. Inhibiting 15-PGDH has been reported to improve muscle strength in aged mice, regenerate articular cartilage and reduce osteoarthritis-associated pain (Science, 2025), and support muscle repair during GLP-1 receptor agonist-induced weight loss (PNAS, 2026). She has also written on therapeutic approaches to sarcopenia (Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 2026). Earlier work developed protein-interaction reporter assays, reflected in a series of patents. Blau is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the Royal Society, received the US National Medal of Science in 2025, and served on the National Advisory Council of the National Institute on Aging (1996-2000). For longevity research, her work connects stem cell biology with drug targets for age-related muscle and joint decline.
Metrics
- h-index 120 · google scholar as of 2026-09-23 source ↗
Research output
378 works · 59,899 citations · h-index 107 OpenAlex ↗
Selected publications
- Dermatologist-level classification of skin cancer with deep neural networks ↗ 2017 · 14,456 citations
- From Marrow to Brain: Expression of Neuronal Phenotypes in Adult Mice ↗ 2000 · 1,685 citations
- Substrate Elasticity Regulates Skeletal Muscle Stem Cell Self-Renewal in Culture ↗ 2010 · 1,612 citations
- Designing materials to direct stem-cell fate ↗ 2009 · 1,403 citations
- Isolation and Characterization of Full-Length cDNA Clones for Human α-, β-, and γ-Actin mRNAs: Skeletal but Not Cytoplasmic Actins Have an Amino-Terminal Cysteine that Is Subsequently Removed ↗ 1983 · 1,211 citations
Research funding
49 NIH awards · USD 22M total NIH RePORTER ↗
- Telomere extension using nucleoside-modified mRNA and exosomes as a novel therape National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases · 2015 · USD 869K
- Telomere extension using nucleoside-modified mRNA and exosomes as a novel therape National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases · 2016 · USD 867K
- Telomere extension using nucleoside-modified mRNA and exosomes as a novel therape National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases · 2014 · USD 866K
- Telomere extension using nucleoside-modified mRNA and exosomes as a novel therape National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases · 2012 · USD 861K
- Telomere extension using nucleoside-modified mRNA and exosomes as a novel therape National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases · 2013 · USD 836K